My kid has been dreaming of a state championship since he started going 0-2 at tourneys as a 7 year old. He worked pretty much every day of his life since then with the dream of becoming getting to the top. He had a pretty good year, I’d say. Wrestled pac coast (5th) and gut check (2nd) and Clark County (1st). Finished 1st in every other tournament.The only WA wrestler he lost to was Cody Miller. Until…
He wrestled the kid from Othello in the quarterfinals, took him down in the first, made a routine mat return in which he did not maliciously drive the kid into the mat, but he did trap the arm. If you’re curious, watch it. You can find a dozen harder mat returns during that hour of the tournament alone. The ref rightfully dinged him (I trust him), but as soon a penalty was signaled, the Othello crew on the rail were encouraging him to stay down.
I’m not clear on what the medical staff had to say, but I understand they could not determine whether or not the kid had a concussion. At the end of the day he must not have, as he continued in the tournament. He was also getting high fives and giggling like a school girl a few minutes later.
I don’t want to trash a kid, and I’m biased, but my kid got robbed of his lifelong dream there and it’s a shame. Also quite a coincidence that the Othello kid wouldn’t step on the mat for the consolation finals, now claiming a boo boo on his leg. My kid and the sport were done an injustice by the Othello program. Tennyson handled it with more class than I did. He’s understandably crushed, but he’s a class act.
Hopefully some rule changes are made to prevent such occurrences in the future.
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